GOP-led committee wants AG, U.S. Attorney to review contract to remove Davis statue
A state legislative panel wants Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to review Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration’s $225,000 contract with a Lexington company to remove the Jefferson Davis statue from the Capitol.
The Government Contract Review Committee on Tuesday raised questions about why the contract was not bid and a campaign finance contribution to Beshear from a relative of the president of the company that got the contract.
Rep. Charles Booker, a Louisville Democrat, called the committee’s action “a political game.” He praised Beshear for responding quickly to get the statue of the Confederate president during the Civil War out of the Capitol.
“The statue should have been gone yesterday,” he said. Booker was the only committee member who voted against the referral motion made by Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield.
Six committee members voted for the referral, all of them Republicans.
Beshear spokeswoman Crystal Staley called the referral “baseless and silly.”
“The governor did not select the company and played no role in the contract process. This contract was not practical to bid due to the very specialized nature of the work and the limited number of companies that perform this type of service.,” she said.
Staley said two firms with experience in safely removing statues were identified and contacted.
She said both vendors visited the site to assess the scope of the project.
“Following these site visits, only American Industrial Contractors was able to complete the project and meet the commonwealth’s schedule.”
The state no-bid contract with the Lexington company was recorded by the state Finance and Administration Cabinet on June 12. That was the same day the Historic Properties Advisory Commission voted 11-1 to remove the 5-ton statue of the Confederate president that had stood in the Capitol Rotunda since December 1936.
Work on removing the statue began later that day and it was out of the Capitol the next day.
The contract called for the Lexington company to “disassemble, transport, store, secure, deliver, and reassemble at a location directed by the Department of Facilities and Support Services the approximately 15-foot-tall marble statue of Jefferson Davis and associated pedestal currently located in the Rotunda of the Kentucky State Capitol.”
Sam Ruth, facilities and support services commissioner for the state Finance and Administration Cabinet, told the committee that the contract was not bid because the governor’s office had given him a deadline to get the job done.
He said he contacted two companies and gave the contract to American Industrial Contractors after the historic properties commission voted for the statue’s removal. “That was the only company who could meet my schedule,” Ruth said.
But Sens. Meredith and Paul Hornback, R-Shelbyville, said the contract should have been bid.
“If we had put out a request for proposal, we may have gotten some other bids,” said Meredith.
“It seems like it all was pre-arranged,” Hornback said.
Meredith also said he was concerned about media reports about campaign contributions and the statue and that the “U.S. Attorney should look at this.”
Records with Kentucky Registry of Election Finance show that Jane Bennington contributed $750 to Beshear’s 2019 primary election campaign for governor. She is the wife of Tom Bennington, president of the moving company that got the state contract.
Ruth said he did not not consider campaign contributions in awarding the contract and that Beshear did not know what company was removing the statue until its crew showed up at the Capitol.
The governor’s office had no immediate comment on the committee’s action.
The controversial Jefferson Davis statue was placed in the Capitol Rotunda in December 1936 at the request of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. That was more than 70 years after the Civil War that ended slavery.
Beshear said the statue was a divisive symbol because of Davis’ support for slavery. He campaigned against the statue in the Capitol in last year’s race for governor and momentum to remove it accelerated with protests this year in the country and Kentucky against racial injustice.
No decision has yet been made on what will replace the statue in the Capitol Rotunda. The Davis statue is to end up at the Jefferson Davis Monument Historic Site in Todd County.
This story was originally published July 14, 2020 at 1:48 PM.
